Our second full day at Turtle Bay and we decided to go a little further a field and visit Watamu village.

Once outside of the hotel, we picked up an escort. Despite our attempts to discourage him, he walked with us as as far as the police post, explaining that he wasn't actually allowed to be a guide and would be in trouble if he was seen.

Being Sunday, there was plenty of activity in the Catholic Church.

Once again it was hot and sunny, but there was plenty to see along the road, including mother hen and her chickens and a groups of goats seemingly oblivious of the passing traffic.

There were constant reminders that we were far from home. Apart from the sun which was almost overhead, tropical flowers and coconut trees were all around.

We did not turn round at the entrance to the village this time. The village itself was a strange mixture of a "traditional" muslim Kenyan village, more modern housing and extremely up market villas owned by foreigners, mostly Germans and Italians.

Passing through the village we picked up another escort, who proved to be a valuable guide. He showed us the road through the village to the beach and took us into several houses.

Watamu Beach itself is dominated by the Watamu Beach hotel, rebuilt after a recent fire, which also wiped out most of the traditional Kenyan housing in the village.

Along the shoreline, there are the inevitable curio shops, but also covered sheds in which local craftsmen build dhows in the traditional manner.

Passing back through the village, our guide took us into one of the Islamic schools where children of all ages were studying the Koran.

The school had no electricity, so was much darker than these photos suggest. The classes were very crowded.

While the children studied inside, a group of women prepared food for them on open fires just outside of the door.

We walked back to Turtle Bay along the beach for variety. We were able to see some of the other local hotels, a lot of very similar curio shops and were able to admire the stinking seaweed which piled up at the North end of the bay and the glass bottom boats.

By the time we got back to the hotel, we had walked a lot further than we originally planned. In the heat we were pretty exhausted, so the rest of the day was spent relaxing.

The weather was all bright sunlight. Just after lunch on Sunday, the clouds started to collect and the wind got up.

Eventually, while we were taking an afternoon siesta, it started to rain. It was still very warm, so the rain was not unpleasant and cleared by early evening.